Q Chip Ltd has appointed Ken Powell as executive chairman. According to the company, Powell spent nearly 30 years as a senior researcher and manager in the pharmaceutical sector and is acknowledged by the industry as one of its pioneers.

Before joining Q Chip, Powell was the CEO of Arrow Therapeutics, the head of antiviral research and biology at the Welcome Foundation and a professor of virology and cell biology at the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research at University College.

Ken Powell has a record in founding and building life science start-ups. During his employment with the Wolfson Institute, he helped establish Inpharmatica, now part of Galapagos NV and Ark Therapeutics which listed on the London Stock Exchange’s main market in March 2004. Ken currently serves as the head of Arrow Therapeutics, which he founded in 1998 and was acquired by Astra-Zeneca PLC for US$150 million in February 2007.